Unless you are planning to specialize, ie: green tea, puerh, offer a variety of teas and products, so that there is something available for a wider range of customers. Offer flavored blends and more traditional and artisinal teas, organic tea, Fair Trade Certified Teas. And be sure to include, whenever possible, information about origin and harvest dates. I've heard many complaints about that from people who want to be sure they are purchasing fresh tea. I think places like Adagio have a great model, but their teas are from single estates, and they don't include the information.

The same thing for teaware. Some customers want nice gadgets, whle others are looking for a good gaiwan or yixing pot. Unless you are targeting a particular type of tea drinker, I think you will have more success with variety.

I'm inclined to agree with spacesamurai, and I expecially have to emphasize the importance of harvest dates and source farms.

Another thing that I personally think is incredibly effective is to establish a "first-name basis" with growers, as Imperial Tea, Red Blossom, and to a lesser extent the Fragrant Leaf have done. Such sites often source their teas to "Mr. Lin's farm in Fujian," or "Yamagata-san's farm in Yame" or the like, and sometimes include biographical information about the farmers, historical information about the farm, and more. I love to know as much as possible about where my tea comes from (although I can't pretend to speak for the majority on this point).

Probably the best example of "personalizing" the tea industry is Rishi's travelogue, which I absolutely love (and they need to update!).

wanna-be buddha wrote:Another thing that I personally think is incredibly effective is to establish a "first-name basis" with growers, as Imperial Tea, Red Blossom, and to a lesser extent the Fragrant Leaf have done. Such sites often source their teas to "Mr. Lin's farm in Fujian," or "Yamagata-san's farm in Yame" or the like, and sometimes include biographical information about the farmers, historical information about the farm, and more. I love to know as much as possible about where my tea comes from (although I can't pretend to speak for the majority on this point).

I'm exactly the same way. Rishi's Travelogue is what got me started on quality loose leaf tea in the first place.